NEW YORK -- At this week's PC Expo trade show, one item is
notably lacking in appeal - the personal computer.

With PC sales lagging to consumers and businesses alike, the
three-day event, now part of a larger trade show dubbed TechX New
York, instead features a wide assortment of cheaper, smaller, and
flashier products.

Prominent in the mix are hand-held and wireless devices, the
industry's newest hope for a much-needed jolt. The estimated 50,000
visitors also saw peripherals such as DVD burners, lower-cost
printers, and bigger and higher-resolution flat liquid crystal
display screens.

There were few signs that buying interest was returning for the
desktop and laptop computers that drove the industry's growth
through the past decade.

The industry's largest vender, Dell Computer Corp., opted not to rent a space for the second year in a row.

"The return on investment just isn't there for us any more,
especially since a growing part of our focus is on the sale of
servers and storage," said Mike Maher, a Dell spokesman.

Research firms calculate that U.S. desktop sales fell 10.4
percent for the first quarter of 2001, the first negative growth in
16 years in a market that typically grows an average of 12 to 15
percent a year.

Analysts and even vendors said there was little at this week's
show to indicate that attendees were doing little more than
looking, meaning the market's likely to continue to lag in the near
future.

"No question about it, the economy's very unstable right now, and we certainly don't expect an immediate turnaround," said Dave Zabrowski, vice president of business PCs of North America for Hewlett-Packard Co.

"We are forecasting the beginning of a turnaround late in the second half of this year," he said. ``That's why the emphasis is on giving companies technologies to help boost efficiency."

"Companies have been trying to get people to buy new
generations of PCs that provide multimedia options or that offer
better portability at a more-reasonable price, but it's not clear
whether this will be enough to pique interest," said Jed Kolko, an
analyst at Forrester Research.

Compaq showed off a new $2,000 PC that will let users record DVD files. Panasonic rolled out a $1,500 component that records high-quality video onto a high-capacity blank disc. IBM made a splash with Microdrive, capable of holding a gigabyte of data on a postage stamp-sized device so that files can be easily transported.

Vendors appeared to be working extra hard to peddle their
products.

Chip maker Intel, for example, tried to wow businesses with its new high-performance Pentium 4 processor.

In a keynote address Wednesday, Intel's executive vice president, Mike Splinter, said the company plans to introduce a Pentium 4 processor at 1.8 gigahertz within the next week.

"Despite booms and busts, the industry is still in the
embryonic stage of the Internet and e-business build-out," he
said.

By leveraging the availability of Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP operating system on Pentium 4 computers, Intel hopes to talk companies into buying PCs at a time when many are holding off on replacing their fleets until the economy improves.

Many analysts believe that Windows XP could have just enough
pizzazz to rejuvenate the market, although with its release pushed
back to Oct. 25, the boost won't be realized until at least the
fourth quarter.

"The XP will help for a couple of reasons. First, Microsoft will spend a lot of money promoting it and, second, the system's going to offer a lot of things like digital photography that are going to be popular with consumers," said Steve Baker, technology researcher for NPD Intelect (cq).

Most computers showcased this week were lightweight notebook PCs, often accompanied by the promise of hundreds of dollars in rebates.

Sony Electronics unveiled several new products this week, including a one-inch-thick notebook PC that will be available in July at a price of $1,500.

Toshiba also rolled out some new laptops in its Satellite product line, including the Satellite Pro 3005, which is thinner and lighter than previous Satellite items.

Hewlett-Packard Co. demonstrated two new notebook PCs configured
to offer increased multimedia options, such as the ability to
record CDs and view DVDs.

"Notebook computers have gotten a lot better, with faster processors and much-larger displays, so that there's very little you can't do on a notebook PC anymore," said John Karidis, an IBM
engineer.

He added that ``desktop PCs are good enough for a lot of typical tasks so companies are lengthening their replacement cycles and not buying new computers right now."

Researchers predict that in five years, only 70 percent of
households on line will be using PCs, while the others will peruse
e-mail and the Internet at the office or with mobile devices.

That's one reason this week's show was dominated by Palm Inc. and other providers of wireless applications and services. In
addition, those companies are increasingly targeting businesses,
which may order hundreds or even thousands of products at a time,
over individuals.

In Times Square, Palm unveiled a flickering neon ad that showed skydivers taking pictures with a digital camera, then yanking the tiny memory card from the camera and inserting it into a new Palm m505 hand-held device, which the company hopes will replace its
Palm V product.